Digital Citizenship: There’s an App for That From Learning.com

The school year is wrapping-up and that means it’s time for schools to start their planning for next year. Staff meetings focus has shifted to compiling of ideas and supplies needed to implement new policies next fall. If students don’t have them already, more are seeing some type of tablet being added to that list, whether it be an iPad or an Android, BYOD or supplied by the school, or just amending policies to let students access their smartphone for learning during the school day. Whatever the choice may be, the addition of these devices can cause a lot of anxiety in administrators, teachers, and parents.

The schools have the responsibility of easing that anxiety by ensuring students will be safe while utilizing these devices. If only there were an app for that.

Coming for the fall of 2014, there will be an app for exactly that. Keith Oelrich, CEO of Learning.com, believes, “starting students on the path towards being good digital citizens before they enter college, or the workforce, is vital.”

Simply limiting or restricting access is not the answer to keeping students safe. Students need to use the tools that will help them learn their best at any time and anywhere. As a result, Learning.com has developed a brand new Digital Citizenship App, specifically designed for middle and high school students, to teach them how to be safe and make good choices online.

The app provides engaging instruction on three important topics: online safety, cyberbullying prevention, and ethical use of online resources.

For each of the three topics, students watch a video lesson, like the short examples below, and then complete a correlating activity to reinforce the concepts. Students then move on to a quiz and must answer 80% of the questions correctly to successfully complete the curriculum.

By using this new app, schools and districts will know that their students have the knowledge they need to be safe with their device. Also, the districts using E-Rate will have the reports needed to show they meet the online safety and cyberbullying instruction requirements.

The app will be available for both iOS and Android tablet and mobile devices. Districts purchase access on a per student basis and then students will be given a code to download the app for free. Schools will have access to a dashboard to track student completion of the app. More information is available from Learning.com.